Rum Punch Recipe with Ginger Beer & Pineapple Juice

This tropical rum punch with ginger beer and pineapple juice will knock your socks off! It’s time to kick back in the hammock.

Hide the car keys. I mean it. Right this minute. This rum punch, straw sip-able as it is, will land you on your…well, you know. However, it is all worth it for the feeling of being transported to a Caribbean island, face kissed by the sun and hair gently blown by a salty breeze. My mum, who grew up in Jamaica, is a fan of rum punches. It wasn’t until I started doing a little research on these tropical cocktails, however, that I learned the formula for making the perfect punch. It goes something like this: “One part sour, two parts sweet, three parts strong and four parts weak.” Is this the Jamaican idea of a nursery rhyme? I must ask my mum the next time I talk to her. It seems equal to the little ditty my dad used to sing to my eldest son to soothe him when he was a baby: “Noilly Prat and Beefeater make the best martinis.” Important grandfatherly advice.
After looking through many rum punch recipes, it seems as though the common ingredients to use for the “sweet” part of the formula are a simple syrup (sugar and water) or grenadine syrup. I made a little departure from the standard and cracked open some bottles of ginger beer (like ginger ale, but with more of a gingery kick), which is a drink my mum introduced to me when I was a kid. I replaced the usual pineapple and orange juice mixture with straight pineapple juice for the “weak” part.

Now, if you like rum punch, but prefer to sip on something a little tamer, decrease the amount of rum and increase the pineapple juice. Sit on a sunny patio, crank the Bob Marley tunes and pretend you are in paradise…even if just for an hour.

“One part sour, two parts sweet, three parts strong and four parts weak.” <– Love this little rhyme! Alright, you've got me sold. I want… No, need, to make this this weekend. But I think I'll have to drink it after baby is down for the night otherwise he is going to be putting me to bed!

I love summer cocktails and I’ve had a thing for caribbean rum punches since my friend’s dad showed me how to make one back in university. His recipe is similiar to yours, except he adds Angostura Bitters. No matter what, the version here looks fantastic and I love ginger beer mixed into cocktails. Thanks Dara for sharing.

I like your parents, they sound like a hoot, so much like my family who always managed to find a reason to open the bar, long before cocktail hour…. and that hour was a long one………. very nice refresher, well, don’t know about the next day…

What a fabulous summer cocktail! With this awful summer heat, I’m afraid I would slug one down and pass out…LOL…I’m a bit of a lightweight. But it sound absolutely marvelous! I’d just have to pace myself

Yes, please! So ready to kick back with some of this! I went to a Rumposium recently, where it was suggested (for parties) to make up the rum punch, extra-strength, in one of those giant igloo water coolers you see on the back of road construction trucks for the workers. The day before the party, freeze water in a large mixing bowl (the diameter of which should be smaller than the opening of the cooler), then drop the giant “ice cube) into the cooler about an hour before party time!

Oh I can’t wait to share this drink with my mother in law. The first time I ever heard of Ginger Beer was when we spent our first Christmas with them. That’s one of her holiday traditions. I do believe she needs a cool refreshing summer version now don’t you :-)?

Oh, you lovely woman, you. I had my first rum punch in the “Islands” a couple of months ago, and I was “delighted.” (My husband did have to carry me to bed) but boy was it worth it- delicious! Thanks for the recipe- I am breaking it out at my next party

Oh, Dara, this punch recipe looks so divine! Drinking it will remind us of all our Caribbean trips plus our time in Bermuda where we first enjoyed ginger beer. Very, very nice. Definitely going on the “to make” list and will be making it soon–thanks so much!

I too spent a good chunk of my childhood in the Caribbean. And though I was just a kid I recognize this luscious concoction as a super limey “Dark and Stormy”. I recognize that “Nursery Rhyme” too. Ha, what a childhood I had. GREG

how i love rum punch! this takes me back to our honeymoon (just a mere 3 months ago) in the caribbean where it seemed like we drank gallons of the stuff. delicious! i’ll be trying out this recipe for sure. =)